Oh and apparently the developers' response to 'forcing' the player to use WP in Spec Ops: The Line was basically "well, the smart play would be to let the character die and no longer continue playing the game as a moral stance".

The Long Dark
I bought this game back when it was still in Early Access, but now it's hit 1.0, so I figured I'd give it another run since there's a story mode now.

Still like it, still riding a razor's edge of fun.

Basically you're stuck in the Canadian Wilderness after some kind of 'electromagnetic event' crashed the plane you were flying, and now you need to get back to civilization. While you do have a life bar, it is directly affected by four major things: hunger, thirst, fatigue, and temperature. You have to make sure that all are above certain thresholds in order to.. well.. exist, and keep playing. These can be affected by the clothing you have, any food or drink you can scavenge in the middle of fucking nowhere, and your ability to make and keep a fire going, even if you're sleeping. Oh, and fix yourself if you get hurt.

I like the game, because it's survival distilled down to it's most pure, since that's all you need to do. There is a Story Mode, and I haven't touched that too much, but from what I have played, it's still mostly that kind of game. I've spent a lot more time in the "sandbox" mode, where you just live and survive. It should also be mentioned that the main VAs in the game (for your character) are Jennifer Hale, Mark Meer, and Elias Toufexis. You know, the Commander Shepards and Adam Jensen.

Anyway, wandering around the Canadian Wilderness with an unloaded rifle (because you don't have ammo) and a pack of matches in your pocket hoping you find some food before you freeze to death is pretty neat, and it's a fun way to kill a few hours.

Retro/Grade
Congratulations! You have saved the universe! Also, you've destroyed it while trying to save it, so uh, that's pretty bad.

Retro/Grade is a game where you reverse through time through the levels you've "already played" absorbing the laser shots you've already fired to stop the destruction you've caused. This is the set-up for what basically amounts to a rhythm game in spaaaace. It's pretty simple (yet pretty difficult), so I'd only recommend it if you're a fan of rhythm games, but if you are a fan, you'll probably love it.

Poker Night At the Inventory 2
I mean, it's fuckin' Poker; there's not much else to it.

The fun part of this game comes from your fellow competitors. You get to play against Claptrap (from Borderlands), Sam (of Sam and Max), Ash (of Army of Darkness), and Brock Samson (of the Venture Brothers). The dealer is GLaDOS from Portal, and of course there's a bar, tended by Mad Moxxi (again, from Borderlands). Interesting conversations and wackiness ensues.

The story is non-existent, you're playing Poker and the object is to win. Every so often, one of the other players puts up a trinket as a bounty, and you get it if you're the last hand standing. There's a good amount of customization as far as cards, table felt, and bar themes (all relating to the other characters' franchises), and there are rewards as far as costume DLC for Borderlands 2.

As far as the actual poker, there's an attempt at being legit there, with each character having tells and reactions that you have to try and figure out in order to win. For me, I've never been able to pick up on things like that (even if the same lines are repeated), so I like to just sit back, relax, and play a round of poker from the comfort of my couch. As a result, I haven't really "beaten" it yet, despite putting in about 5 hours or so, even if I've earned most of the rewards. I'd imagine if I was actually good at poker, I'd be long done with this (or at least earning/unlocking everything).

It's fun, but not super-great; for me, it's a low-energy time-waster if I just want to chill out and game but not get wrapped up in anything "serious".

Firewatch
I'd wanted this game for a while, since the trailer looked interesting enough, and the art style was kind of neat. That said, I purchased the game purely because at the time I needed to have a recent purchase on my Steam account so I could use the Marketplace, and this was the cheapest on my wishlist.

~5 hours later, I've beaten it and it's a neat little game. You play a spotter for the Forest Service (not a Ranger) where you spend the summer in a little tower making sure the place doesn't catch fire. Along the way you run into a few people, and get embroiled in a gigantic conspiracy that will shake you to your very core.

Kidding.

Like I said, it's a neat game, and most of the dialog is between you and another lookout, who you never see but can speak with over the radio. Gameplay is mostly "walking simulator" with dialog choices, but the world you inhabit is pretty vibrant and worth exploring every chance you get. If nothing else, you get a map that gets increasingly detailed as you discover things, so filling that out is an adventure in and of itself.

Anyway, it's a short little distraction that was surprisingly engaging given the time spent, and if you pick it up, Firewatch is worth it.

Universe Sandbox
It's pretty much what it says on the tin. There's no 'real game' here, it's just a simulation of the universe, and then you get to play in it to see what happens. Want to adjust the orbit of the moon? Want to crash an asteroid into Uranus? This is that kind of game.

If this is your thing, then by all means, play the shit out of it. If it was mine, I know I would. But it's not, so... on to the next thing.

The game isn't strictly MP-only, but that is the only real way to play. Just make sure you have friends to play it with, because looking for a match that welcomes people new to the game is... hit and miss. Also the DLC (seems to be) Pay To Win, so a person is more likely to get kicked because the base game's weapons and armor aren't as efficient as things that you can plunk cash down for.

The idea is fun, but I think I'm a little too late to the party on this, so I'm going to skip the rest.

Probably unfair (to me), but I'm going to add the remasters/ports of games that I've already played/beaten if that's a separate thing on Steam/Origin/uPlay. Well, add them to my Backloggery page, that is.

Golden Axe
This is the nostalgia talking, but I loved this game. I played it off and on back in the day (in the arcades), and it was great walking down that path again for a bit. The 'wrapper' around it in the form of the emulator it ran on was annoying, but it did it's job and I got to play as my axe-wielding dwarf again.

This is not me saying anyone should buy it though. I got it for free (along with Jet Set Radio), but apparently the only other way you can get it now is by buying the whole Sega Classics collection which is ~$60. I never had a Genesis, so I can't speak to the rest of the games in the collection, but if you want to rekindle your nostalgia, and have the money to burn... probably get a Pi and play emulators on that instead. It's at least more functional.